Conventional metaphors have probably always existed. Many new words or sense-meanings have arisen when old words were metaphorically extended to new ideas/situations. Metaphors hidden in the roots (etymologies) of words are usually labelled as dead metaphors. Their metaphoric imagery is not as vivid, as alive as more regular or novel metaphors. However, understanding them might help understand the role they play in fresh metaphors.

Etymology of a word

The roots of language are irrational and of a magical nature.

___ Jorge Luis Borges↓1

Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time. By an extension, the term “etymology (of a word)” means the origin of a particular word.

To trace this history etymologists look into previous texts to glean former meanings and usages. They also examine word roots to trace the origins. Word root is the most basic part of the word necessary for the word’s meaning. Many more words are derived by adding suffixes or prefixes to the root word.

Metaphoric applications of Qur’anic roots

In the Arabic language, the root of a word typically consists of three, four, or five letters↓2. There may not only be suffixes or prefixes to make words from the root, there are often ‘infixes’, i.e. letter(s) inserted between the root words. For instance, consider the following two ayahs:

وَالَّذِينَ هُم مِّنْ عَذَابِ رَبِّهِم مُّشْفِقُونَ

And those who are fearful of the punishment of their Lord; [Al-Ma’arij 27]

فَلَا أُقْسِمُ بِالشَّفَقِ

The highlighted words both share the same root – Sha-Fa-Qa, but very different meanings. The most literal meaning of the root-letters (the one associated with the basic derivation from root words), according to Lane Lexicon are: “being niggardly of provision” and “being fearful and cautious on account of it”. By metaphoric association, the word, especially in its form in the first ayah, has come to mean: being ‘apprehensively fearful’, ‘tender’, ‘compassionate’, and ‘cautious’.

The form used in the second example above is a noun. It refers to “the redness in the horizon from sunset until the time of nightfall”. While the extension of meaning as in the above example is obvious, the one in this later example is not so obvious. It is understandably probable that the same metaphoric process of meaning-extension worked in this case, as well.

Below, I attempt to gather several Qur’anic examples where comparison of a word’s usage with the basic root meaning reveals the application of a metaphor.

وَإِذْ فَرَقْنَا بِكُمُ الْبَحْرَ

Over here the root-letters appear in their most basic form: past tense (plural subjective). Their meaning is literal: to divide or separate something physical into two (or more) portions.

وَقُرْآنًا فَرَقْنَاهُ لِتَقْرَأَهُ عَلَى النَّاسِ عَلَىٰ مُكْثٍ

AND [it is] a Qur’an which We have separated [by intervals] that you might recite it to the people over a prolonged period. [in Al-Isra 106]

The ayah above carries the same word with the same meaning but in a less literal sense. The division mentioned here is not in a physical sense but in the sense of time.

فِيهَا يُفْرَقُ كُلُّ أَمْرٍ حَكِيمٍ

ON this night, every absolute command coming from Us becomes distinguishable. [Ad-Dukhan 4]

Above is the present tense (singular subjective) version of the same basic form utilised in even less literal sense. Speaking of the one blessed night in which God determines every matter of the world that is to take place till the next occurence of the night↓3. When each matter has been ordained, it is as if everything has been ‘clearly seperated’ from every other thing. The metaphorical extension of meaning is clear. Examples of other extensions follow:

وَاعْتَصِمُوا بِحَبْلِ اللَّهِ جَمِيعًا وَلَا تَفَرَّقُوا

AND hold fast to the Bond of Allah, together, and do not scatter. [in Al-i-Imran 103]

The Qur’anic version of “united we stand; divided we fall”. The word used in a prohibitive version of a derived form signifies both physical, mental and psychosocial lack of unison that results when small disagreements in a group/nation carry more weiht than the major unifying principles.

BLESSED is He who has sent down the Criterion to His worshiper (Prophet Muhammad), that he is a warner to all mankind; [Al-Furqan 1]

Finally, the most metaphorical application of the root is this noun-form that is used for things carrying a superlative degree of a property. Al-Qur’an is called as The One that divides the wrong from right; that makes everything clear and distinguishable from one another↓4.

AND when the two groups saw each other, Moses’ companions said, “We are sure to be overtaken.” [Ash-Shu’ara 61]

This ayah illustrates this root’s most literal meaning: ‘to be physically overtaken’. The word here is in the noun (plural) form of a derivative version of the root↓. The ayah is from the story when Moses’ companions were afraid they will be caught by Pharoah’s troops when they were stopped by the sea while fleeing from Egypt. In fact, the most literal sense of the root’s simplest derivative is, according to Lanes’s Lexicon, “the dropping of rain with close consecutiveness as though one portion thereof overtook another.” Thus it seems, that the basic meaning from above ayah might itself be a metaphorical extension of rain droplets closely following each other. An even lesser literal application is as follows:

WHEN they are all gathered there, the last of them will say of the first, “Our Lord, it was they who led us astray:…” [in Al-A’raf 38]

Speaking of groups of the punished on the Judgment Day entering hell-fire, the application of da-ra-kaf is in the sense that they all followed each other into hell, as if one party overtook another into the hell-fire.

NAY, but their knowledge fails as to the Hereafter; nay, they are in doubt of it; nay, they are blind to it. [An-Naml 66]

Here ‘overtook’ has been metaphorically extended into ‘failure’. Other meanings according to other standard translations include ‘their knowledge’ being ‘lost’ (Maududi) and ‘arrested’ (Sahih International). A sportsman usually ‘fails’ when they are overtaken by another, hence the metaphor. Or, since the root is also extended into ‘reaching over’, the meaning is in the sense: ‘doth their knowledge reach to the hereafter?’ (Pickthall)↓5.

Shim-Jim-Ra

The word shajar is commonly known to Arabic-Urdu-Hindi speaking people as ‘tree’. Indeed that is the common usage in which it is utilised in the Quran as well (See the pertinent Quranic Arabic Corpus page for comparison). However, that is not its literal meaning. The true literal meaning is used in the Qur’an only once, in the following ayah.

BUT nay, by thy Lord, they will not believe (in truth) until they make thee judge of what is in dispute between them; [in An-Nisa 65]

The literal meaning of shajara (here appearing in its most basic form: past tense singular subjective), according to Lane’s Lexicon, is “being or becoming intricate, complicated, perplexed, confused, or intricately intermixed.” When it is used with baina-hum (‘between them), as above, it is meant as: “an occasion of contention, or dispute, or of disagreement, or of difference…”. The Lexicon cites “intermixing, or confusion of the branches” as the reason for the word’s application to trees.

كُلُوا وَارْعَوْا أَنْعَامَكُمْ

أَخْرَجَ مِنْهَا مَاءَهَا وَمَرْعَاهَا

AND then (Allah) brought from it its water and pasture. [An-Nazi’at 31]

and

فَمَا رَعَوْهَا حَقَّ رِعَايَتِهَا

… THEN they did not observe it as it ought to have been observed; [in Al-Hadid 27]

وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ لِأَمَانَاتِهِمْ وَعَهْدِهِمْ رَاعُونَ

[Those] WHO are true [keepers] to their trusts and their covenants; [Al-Mu’minum 8]

The first two ayahs represent the literal sense of the root-word: to pasture cattle. The first word is in imperative and the second is the derivative noun. The second pair represents the metaphorical extension: tending to, observing, keeping one’s charges.

…

These examples illustrate in detail how well-integrated metaphors are into language and it’s history and usage.

The last post essentially revisited the ubiquity and essentiality of metaphor↓1. Metaphors are not only prevalent, they are a part of the way we think, understand and describe things in this world.

Some metaphors are such an integral part of our conceptual system that we do not easily notice them, or understand them plainly. Some others are different in the sense that they are less frequent, unique, unfamiliar, or present new connections between ideas. The former were termed as conventional, while the latter was termed as novel by George Lakoff↓2. He and subsequent research identified several neural and cognitive differences between the two. On the other hand, both are basically a part of the same system (i.e. conceptul system) and arise from the same process (metaphorical thinking).

In this post we focus only on conventional metaphors since they are more frequent and we will move on to special cases of conventional metaphor.

Examples of conventional metaphors

Nearly all the Qur’anic examples of conceptual metaphors in the last post were conventional. Here we consider more examples, highlighting their familiarity and salience. This way, there will be appropriate contrast to novel metaphors when they are presented later in the anthology.

إِنَّكُمْ وَمَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّـهِ حَصَبُ جَهَنَّمَ

Verily you and the gods you worshipped beside Allah are the fuel of Hell. [in Al-Anbiya 98]

Since hell is supposed to burn those put into it as punishment, calling those fuel is an obvious metaphor.

And do not resolve on the knot of marriage until the waiting term expires; [in Al-Baqarah 235]

This ayah on guidance for another wedlock after the previous one has ended terms it as a ‘knot’. This metaphor calls to mind its English correspondent: the bond (in addition to ‘knot’ which itself is a metaphor’. Since a knot ties two things together and so does marriage in the psychosocial sense, the metaphor is obvious.

وَزَيَّنَّا السَّمَاءَ الدُّنْيَا بِمَصَابِيحَ وَحِفْظًا

And We adorned the nearest heaven with lamps and as protection. [in Sura Fussilat 12]

Stars, while performing their astronomical functions (one of which is hinted in this ayah), also look beautiful from earth because of their twinkling. Hence the metaphorical rendering ‘adorned’ or ‘decorated’ is understandable.

قَالَ سَنَشُدُّ عَضُدَكَ بِأَخِيكَ

A man performs most of his actions with his arm. Sometimes the task is so big, he needs another’s help. A helping hand is, thus, a common universal metaphor. Here God speaks of strengthening Prophet Moses’ (alaihi-s-salaam) arm by bestwoing his brother Haroon (alaihi-s-salaam) with prophethood as well.

فَأَذَاقَهُمُ اللَّـهُ الْخِزْيَ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا

Expressing different experiences in life as ‘food’ is a common conceptual metaphor across cultures. Tasting the flavor of success, failure; acquiring the fruit of labor, patience; and so forth.

هُنَالِكَ ابْتُلِيَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَزُلْزِلُوا زِلْزَالًا شَدِيدًا

There the believers were tested and shaken with a severe shaking. [Al-Ahzab 11]

The metaphor here is an expression of the conceptual metaphor: “emotion is physical force”. Allah speaks here of the time when Non-believing tribes have gathered around Madina from all over Arab and Muslims had to defend themselves by constructing a big trench on Madina’s front (ghazwa-e-ahzab). At that time some inside groups of hypocrites, and of Jews who were living in Madina had also started brewing trouble, causing Muslims a jolt of worry. Hence the metaphoric image applied is that of an earthquake’s shake to paint the picture of the extreme emotional turbulence the Muslims found themselves in.

Conclusion

This study makes us realize that metaphors are salient and easily understandable when the metaphoric image (the vehicle) shares an obvious connection with the meaning (target/source). Both the aspects of the metaphor (vehicle and target) are familiar to us through our day-to-day observations and experiences. It is these that are termed as ‘conventional’ and many more examples exist in the Qur’an.

Qur’an is an inexhaustible resource whether analysed from literary, philosophical or mathematical points of view or more. There are many aspects of the Qur’an that a current reader might immerse in and glean countless gems for close study. In the current thread of posts, I have been focusing on Qur’anic metaphors, following on from a previous series of posts in which theory and literature on the topic were explored.

In this thread of posts, so far, I have been discussing examples of metaphors in Qur’an as they appear in various forms (such as similie and allegory). Closely related forms which are not exactly metaphors were also considered (such as metonymy).

In the current section I will consider examples from another angle: I came across various ‘types’ of metaphors during my literature search for the previous series of posts. There is no theme uniting these various ‘types’ into a common group. Rather they could not be categorized under any other typology we will be going through in this anthology. We will go through the various types in alphabetical order.

Abstract metaphors↓1

Metaphors typically rely on a concrete sensation to draw it’s vehicle. Such as ‘the rose’ of love, in which the visual beauty, tactile softness, and the ethereal perfume are drawn for their likeness to the beautiful sensations of love. Sometimes, however, the vehicle itself is an abstract noun, such as ‘the force’ of love in which force _ a hypothetical construct in physics__ is equated with the emotional pull of love.

O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him. [in An-Nisa 171]

In this ayah, Hazrat Isa (alaihi-s-salaam) has been identified as a Word of God. This ayah is meant to persuade Christians and Jews about the truth of Hazrat Isa’s birth. His birth was extraordinary in an earthly son since he was born without a father. “Word of God’ is, of course, an abstract concept. It means the will, the command, and the decree of Allah. The birth of Prophet Isa occured the way it died because Allah had ordained it to be so. Moreover, its being no different from any human birth is referenced in ayah 59 of Surah Al-i-Imran↓2.

وَلَا تَزِرُ وَازِرَةٌ وِزْرَ أُخْرَىٰ

And no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another.

A classic Qur’anic idiom regarding ‘personal responsibility’, the phrase appears in several places throughout the Qur’an, such as Al-An’am 164, Al-Isra 15, and Surah Fatir 18. It is about the Day of Judgment when every person will be judged on their acts alone. Burden, again, is an abstract noun. The quote below from English Tafhim-yul-Qur’an succintly provides its interpretation.

… everyone is responsible and accountable for his own deeds and this responsibility can, on no account, be shifted from one to another.

This same (or similar) metaphor has been employed with other words too, examplified in the following quotations:

وَسَاءَ لَهُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ حِمْلًا

and evil it is for them on the Day of Resurrection as aload [in Sura Ta’Ha 101]

And We will regard what they have done of deeds and make them asdust dispersed. [Al-Furqan 23]

The first two of these, himla and athwqal (plural for thaqal) are plain synonyms for wizr. The meaning of the second of those ayah references ayah 85 of An-Nisa↓3: Additional burdens are those incurred by one’s influences on other people’s character and behavior. The third might be viewed as a different metaphoric image (‘dust dispersed); but, has been drawn from the same abstract category: weight.

Conceptual metaphors

While abstract metaphors are typically cited in literary resources, conceptual metaphors is a popular cognitive theory of metaphorical thinking. In the simplest terms:

conceptual metaphor, or cognitive metaphor, refers to the understanding of one idea, or conceptual domain, in terms of another

[Note that this definition essentially posits metaphor as a case of isomorphism.] This general theory basically encompasses all metaphors, but here some illustrative examples from the Qur’an are provided. Note that Lakoff and Johnson identified three types of conceptual metaphor. The definitions with proper citing has been covered in one of the previous sets of posts on metaphor.

نَرْفَعُ دَرَجَاتٍ مَّن نَّشَاءُ

A typical example of a conceptual metaphor, the imagery of the metaphor is not immediately obvious. The use of word ‘raise’ in the sense of qualifying /promoting something to its better or higher value is so common, we don’t realize that the literal meaning of word raise is only in the sense of physically lifting something up. Lakoff and Johnson called this is as an orientational metaphor: in which different gradations of non-physical phenomenon are presented as lined up on a linear up-down (higher/lower) continuum. Another metaphor from the lower end of the continuum is as follows, whereby God refers to the highest and lowest possible states of man in the Surah:

وَإِنَّ لَهُ عِندَنَا لَزُلْفَىٰ

وَلَـٰكِن يَنَالُهُ التَّقْوَىٰ مِنكُمْ

All these examples treat an abstract noun (respectively, ‘matter/issue’, ‘nearness’, and ‘piety’ as if it’s concrete. Literally, a matter cannot have a physical place, a nearness is not a possession to be had, and piety is not a parcel. Regarding them as such shows the inherent metaphor. A metaphor in which non-matter is treated as a substance is called ontological metaphor. Two more examples in the same category occur in the following classic proclamation from the Qur’an:

The third category involves expressing one kind of experience/activity in terms of another. These are called structural metaphors and involve the kind of structural mapping we have already illustrated in this series such as in the very previous post. In fact, the majority of metaphors incuding those considered literary, are based on such a structural map. Other examples that may be outlined through maps have been covered in previous posts on the simple metaphor, personification, and metaphoric symbols.

3. Translation of the referenced ayah from the source linked above: “Whoever intercedes for a good cause will have a reward therefrom; and whoever intercedes for an evil cause will have a burden therefrom. And ever is Allah, over all things, a Keeper.”